Lost
by badly-knitted
Summary: Ryo and Dee are on a touring vacation in England but they seem to have gone slightly astray… Set after Vol. 7.


**Title:** Lost

**Author:** badly-knitted

**Characters:** Dee, Ryo, OMC.

**Rating:** PG

**Setting:** After Vol. 7.

**Summary:** Ryo and Dee and on a touring vacation in England but they seem to have gone slightly astray…

**Written For:** The tw100 prompt 'Lost'.

**Word Count:** 1300

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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"You know what?" Dee said, pulling up at an un-signposted crossroads.

"What?" Ryo tore his gaze away from the tranquil English countryside to look at his partner.

"I have absolutely no idea where we are, or which way we're supposed to go! What is it with the British and signposts? They got a quota they're not allowed to exceed or somethin'? Or do they just like messin' with tourists?"

"Are you saying we're lost?" They were in the middle of nowhere, nothing but fields and hedgerows as far as the eye could see. It had been at least an hour since they'd seen another car, and that had been parked at the side of the road with no one in it.

Dee shook his head. "Nah, I wouldn't go that far. I mean, we were goin' the right way last time I saw a signpost and I think we're still headin' more or less in the same direction. If we keep goin' we're bound to find another signpost or a village eventually, Britain's not that big, I'm just not sure which road to take. If you can even call 'em roads."

Really they were nothing more than narrow, winding lanes, most of the time without enough room for two cars to pass each other going in opposite directions.

"If you think we're heading in roughly the right direction then we might as well keep going straight ahead. If the road doesn't seem to be going anywhere we can always find a place to turn around, come back here and try one of the others."

"What about the map? Maybe we should take a look at that."

"I don't think that's going to be much help if we can't figure out where we are." Nevertheless, Ryo pulled out the map book and started trying to work out their route from the last village they'd passed through before finally shaking his head. "No, it's no use; this could be any one of half a dozen crossroads."

"Whelp, we wanted this vacation to be an adventure and I guess we've got our wish. Straight ahead it is." Putting the car in gear, Dee drove across the junction and continued on down the lane. When they came to a fork they went left because that way went downhill and most villages seemed to be in valleys.

"At least we're getting to see the countryside," Ryo said, his forearm resting on the sill of the open passenger window. He was finally starting to adjust to being on the wrong side of the car; at first every time he got in the front passenger seat he'd felt like he should be the one driving and had gotten confused by the lack of a steering wheel. Getting in the driver's side had been just as bad, with Dee having to remind him he was supposed to be driving. Why the British had to do things back to front was a mystery and driving on what was for him the wrong side of the road had been scary to start with. Not that there was a right or wrong side of the road at the moment, what with the country lanes being too narrow to have right and wrong sides. Having only one lane simplified things in a way, but you really had to watch out for vehicles coming from the opposite direction, especially going round bends where you could only see a short distance ahead.

"I'm all for sightseein', but right now the only sight I want to see is some place we can get lunch." The fresh country air was only serving to increase Dee's already healthy appetite.

Ryo laughed. "I'm sure we will, soon enough, and then maybe we'll be able to figure out where we are and which way we should be going."

"We can hope."

The road they were on started to curve sharply to the right, uphill again, but there was a turning off to the left a few minutes later, going downhill so they took that. It didn't take long for them to realise that was a mistake; the lane grew even narrower and the tarmac ended abruptly, replaced by a rutted dirt track, but by that point it was impossible to turn around because the hedgerows were practically brushing the sides of the car, and reversing would have been nearly impossible.

"Now what?" Dee asked, starting to sound a little worried.

"Keep going. There're fresh tire tracks in the dirt so this has to go somewhere."

It did; a few minutes later they came through an open gateway into a farmyard, much to the surprise of a man pushing a wheelbarrow towards a long shed.

"Well, it's civilisation, sort of," Dee muttered.

Ryo leant out his window. "Hi, sorry about the intrusion but we took a wrong turn, or possibly several. Not really sure where we are. Maybe you could help us?"

"Amurricans are ye?" The farmer's accent was so thick it was hard to understand.

"Yes. We're on vacation."

"Wher'ya gorn?"

It took a bit of doing, but with the map book and a lot of pointing they found out where they were and where they'd gone wrong; they should have turned left at the crossroads. The farmer pointed out which way they should go to get back on track, which meant going back to the road they'd just turned off of and following it for a couple of miles to another junction where they should take the left fork.

Thanking the farmer, they set off again and twenty minutes later arrived in a picturesque village nestled in a valley. Thankfully it had a pub where they were able to buy sodas and freshly made ploughman's lunches that they ate sitting at a rustic table in the pub's garden, where bees droned lazily among the flowers and a donkey peered curiously over the fence at them.

"Getting lost wasn't so bad," Ryo commented. "The people around here are so friendly and helpful." If they'd driven onto a farm in rural America, chances were they'd have been met by someone wielding a shotgun or a hunting rifle and ordering them off the property.

"Yeah," Dee agreed, "and the food's good too. Pity we're drivin, or I'd order a beer to wash it down with."

"Go ahead if you want; only one of us has to drive and it's my turn anyway."

"Sure you don't mind?"

"I'm sure."

"Well in that case…" Pushing back his chair, Dee vanished inside the pub, returning with a pint of the local draught beer. Dropping back into his seat, he took a long drink. "Man, that's good."

Ryo snagged the glass for a taste as soon as Dee set it down. "Mm, it really is." He let Dee have his beer back and got out the map book. "Okay, looks like another hour or so and we should reach here." He indicated a coastal town. "Place called Plymouth. With luck we should be able to find somewhere there to stay the night, and then tomorrow we should get to Cornwall, as long as we don't take too many wrong turns." He grinned at his lover.

"Funny. You were the one supposed to be navigatin', y'know; I was just the driver!"

"What does it really matter? We're driving around, meeting people, seeing the sights… If we wander off course now and then, who cares? Just means we're seeing places we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise."

Dee nodded. "That's true. Matter of fact, gettin' lost might be the best thing we've done so far. Wouldn't have found this place otherwise."

"I'll drink to that." Ryo raised his soda and clinked it against Dee's beer glass. "Here's to adventure; whichever way we go, we're sure to find it!"

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The End


End file.
